Jessica Scaperotti, a spokeswoman for the department, declined to release further identifying details, but she said the victim had underlying complications that increased the risk of death.

Health officials have said that such complications include being over 65, under 2, having respiratory or immune system problems or being obese, among others.

She said health officials were urging New Yorkers with flu who have underlying conditions or severe symptoms like shortness of breath to seek medical attention immediately.

“While most of New York City’s H1N1 deaths involve people with established risk factors, influenza can be fatal in otherwise healthy people,” Ms. Scaperotti said.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the Bronx district attorney’s office said four prosecutors were believed to be suffering from swine flu, prompting a thorough cleaning of the office. None have been hospitalized.

About 1,000 New Yorkers die of flu in a normal flu season, health officials say. This virus is unusual in that it began in late April, later than the normal flu season, and has persisted well past the time when people no longer worry about flu in a normal year.

There have been 29 new hospitalizations since Thursday, the health department said, for a total of 375 since the outbreak began. There have been 623 confirmed swine flu cases in New York City, though because testing is limited, that does not reflect the true spread of the virus.

This is not ,”seasonal flu”- it has not been the 65 and over in the ICUs and dying! It is Pandemic Firstwave, since April: the first pandemic since 1968, that billions of your taxes have been spent the past 4 years supposedly preparing for, and supposedly ,”warning” you
to prepare for!

The public trust has been betrayed; “public health” has been using propaganda and censoring Science all during Pandemic Alert – “a denial of fact and truth that is hateful” -and now, failed to try and mitigate Firstwave.
Our taxes paid for modelling that showed what will happen next; don’t let officials say they ‘had no idea’.

See “Wikileaks”, and look for the CDC Director’s Brief from May 20th

for cases in hospital by pre-existing conditions (29% had none; healthy people put in hospital by H1N1)
and by ages – and the chart for Deaths by ages;
most of which are children and essential worker ages;
we should have been protecting from panflu infection!

This is *not * a ‘normal’ year – this is beginning of 1 to 3 years of Pandemic Flu – and it is being denied by officials -just like in 1918 – “due to political and economic pressures” – look out!

Use GetPandemicReady.org

and do one thing every week to get better prepared at home – don’t wait until “next fall” – this virus hasn’t gone anywhere and doesn’t have to (and H5N1 is still out there being fought; & Contained, for now) ; get preparing at home; you were supposed to have been told to start- years before the financial meltdown.

Surface cleaing doesn’t do much when flu/panflu is contagious Before symptoms and airborne-contagious; you don’t get the virus you want; you have to deal with what is happening; hiding facts never helps improve outcomes for society.
Silence kills- at fast-forward, this time.
91% of “seasonal” flu deaths are age 65 and over;
this H1N1 virus is not, “just flu” –
this is a PanFlu Firstwave targeting the 0 to 64 population.

Ask why the US Dept of Education Pandemic Flu Preparedness video was never shown to parents?
It was, “what every family should know and do”

While understanding the hesitation to feed a potential panic mentality, the scarcity of information released by the City is appalling.

They have the outlook of “Don’t worry, we know what’s good for you, trust us. ” But the test of a truly responsive government is openness and the accountability that derives from it. The City is failing miserably in this regard. It’s blatant disregard for providing even basic information about the borough location of fatalities in the name of medical confidentiality is an insult… or perhaps a decision from an Administration determined not to let anything interfere with the anointment of the Mayor to a third term.

Rudy Giuliani didn’t write the health insurance portability and accountability act of 1996. It’s federal law. Try to get a hospital to tell you if your business partner, or best friend, or roomate, or gay lover is even there.

The people who fought so hard against tabulation of anonymous health data, particularly on abortion or HIV, won their legal victory. The law of unintended consequences however, cannot be appealed.

What we know is that the odds of New Yorkers dying from H1N1 are slightly less than 1:1,000,000 at the moment.

So, you can’t be young, can’t be old, can’t be middle-aged and heavy, can’t have asthma or hypertension, can’t be pregnant, certainly can’t have a serious medical illness that lowers immune system defenses. Right. Except that obesity is a national epidemic, asthma is epidemic in NYC, and given medical advances many people live quite well despite having multiple, chronic medical conditions. So who exactly is supposed to be at risk?

NYC is doing an abysmal job of providing information to the public. Of course no one wants to inflame fears or panic. But there’s a vast difference between protecting the public from mass hysteria vs. providing the facts. Where’s the transparency Bloomie’s supposedly instituted in his administration? And why is the media colluding with this? Aren’t 623 confirmed cases enough for you guys to start looking into the city’s apparent lack of response with something other than a very brief article buried in the back pages?

Somthing fishy. It’s serious, but they don’t want us to think that way. Obviously, they want us to take the chance of dying instead of killing the economy again. No instrustions on how to prevent it for those people who has “underlying sickness”. Good luck. Basically, you are on your own. I hope the Vaccine come out soon, may be October, a vaccine VLP by Novavax. Look into that, it’s the fastest way to come out a new vaccine, so all people has “underlying diease” can get a shot ASAP. God bless you!

am i reading the nyc health dept website correctly?
seems that there have been over 100 new hospitalizations since June 8th. that is pretty scary when total hospitalizations in nyc since this whole thing began, including the 100 or so new cases, is in the low 500s. in other words, it seems that 20% of all hospitalizations in nyc occurred over the past couple of days!! this getting worse or what?

What's Next

Looking for New York Today?

New York Today is still going strong! Though no longer on City Room, New York Today continues to appear every weekday morning, offering a roundup of news and events for the city. You can find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com or in the morning, on The New York Times homepage or its New York section. You can also receive it via email.

Lookin for Metropolitan Diary?

Metropolitan Diary continues to publish! Since 1976, Metropolitan Diary has been a place for New Yorkers, past and present, to share odd fleeting moments in the city. We will continue to publish one item each weekday morning and a round-up in Monday's print edition. You can find the latest entries at nytimes.com/diary and on our New York section online.

About

City Room®, a news blog of live reporting, features and reader conversations about New York City, has been archived. Send questions or suggestions by e-mail.